The ongoing National Research Institute political forum is exposing the lack of proper fiscal policies from political parties.
Today, two parties couldn’t give clear-cut measures on how they will manage the country’s finances to deliver their long things to do list.
Melanesian Alliance Party and Our Development Party took the podium, later EMTV asked them about key areas in their fiscal policies, if they were to take government.
Melanesian Party General Secretary, Nick Klapat, says they’ll stop loans completely and use revenue from the extractive industry to deliver services.
“If we Melanesian Alliance Party come into Government, we will look at shelving this kind of borrowing,” says Klapat.
Our development Party’s, Habia Babe says the responsibility of debt repayment will be placed on the people who got the loan.
“If it (Party) sees that it is genuine, we will make the people who incurred the debt to repay it,” says Habia Babe
For most parties, the things-to-do list looks good; free education and health, better road infrastructure and funding for local business development making the top of the list.
There are 44 political parties registered to contest the elections, the challenge now is for the general public to vote for parties that have a clear cut indication of what their policies are, and how they’re going to manage the fiscal climate of the country.
Party Executives haven’t told the country where they’ll get the money to deliver on their wish lists, and how they’ll mange debt levels that have accumulated.
“They need to move on from simply saying we’re going to do everything.” “Ultimately, you don’t have the money to do everything,” says Dr.Aryes
National Research Institute Senior Deputy Director, Dr. David Ayres, says political parties must state clearly where they’ll get the money from to fund their development agenda.
